Councillor’s reports

Western Australia – Trevor Gosatti

On 3 August 2021, Water Minister Dave Kelly announced the official completion of the Albany to Denmark pipeline. A 43 km pipeline has been constructed to connect Denmark to Lower Great Southern Towns Water Supply Scheme (LGSTWSS). The pipeline was installed using horizontal directional drilling, or trenchless construction, to mitigate impact on natural resources. Horizontal directional drilling was used to go under Quickup and Hay rivers without impacting the natural waterways.

The trenchless industry was saddened to learn of the passing of Menno Henneveld on 6 June 2021. While I know that Menno’s passing has been mentioned in more detail elsewhere in Trenchless Australasia, I just wanted to reinforce Menno’s contribution to Western Australia in a short note.

Menno was the inaugural Chairman of the ASTT who dedicated a significant proportion of his working life to both trenchless technology and the ASTT. His interest in trenchless technology led to the formation of the ASTT and saw Menno become the inaugural chairman of the Australian (later Australasian) Society for Trenchless Technology (ASTT), which spanned a period from 1991 till 2012.

Menno was the WA Councillor for the ASTT from its formation in 1991 up to my appointment in 2007. It was then my honour to take over the ASTT Chairmanship when he sought to step down in 2009. I saw first-hand the contribution he made to the trenchless industry in WA.

He went on to also contribute to the ISTT, being on the Executive Subcommittee and fulfilling roles of Vice President and President of the ISTT. In WA, Menno also made a large contribution to the civil construction industry, through his work at the Water Corporation of WA, Main Roads of WA (where he was the Commissioner of Main Roads) and the civil engineering community in general. He received many awards and commendations for his contributions to industry.

On a personal note, it was an honour to work with Menno and see his passion for the trenchless and civil construction industries.

Victoria – Justin Shepherd

Despite the economic impacts of another two COVID-19 lockdowns, the trenchless industry has been relatively unaffected in Victoria, with projects advancing and new installations associated with Victoria’s Big Build kicking off. The preferred contractor for the North East Link Project main tunnel package has been announced, adding momentum to the early utility relocation packages.

The Yarra East Main Sewer relocation works are progressing well with involvement from Quinn Civil and Bothar Boring. Three of four major pipe-jacking drives of 1,500-1,800 mm ID (to total 1,800 m) using two MTBMs have now been completed and the 1 km of new reticulation sewers (DN250-DN450 mm) using the Vermeer AXIS boring system are underway.

Rob Carr has completed two DN900 pipejacking drives of 185 m and 199 m and now installing 6 manholes at Berwick on behalf of Fulton Hogan for the Clyde Road Level Crossing Removal Project. In addition to building assets, Rob Carr’s Senior Management Team have been building interest for a potential new generation of trenchless professionals through microtunnelling presentations at the Holmesglen Institute Victorian Tunnelling Centre.

To Melbourne’s north, the Ventia Jaydo JV have been constructing Yarra Valley Water’s 9 km long Lockerbie Main Sewer and have reached a significant milestone with all six pipe-jack tunnel drives (total 2.7 km) completed by Bothar’s two AVN1200 MTBMs. The project is now focusing on completing its final GRP manhole installations and on track for completion over the next few months.

During July, Interflow sprang into action in Melbourne’s Western Suburbs following heavy rainfalls for the emergency relining of a collapsed DN600 concrete sewer pipeline. After setting up a temporary bypass to secure the network operations and avoid sewage spill, the crews removed rock, rubble and debris from the collapsed main and relined it with Ribloc Expanda Spiral lining.

New South Wales – Matthew Boyle

I don’t think anyone was expecting what we have experienced in NSW in the past two months. COVID-19 restrictions including the suspension of construction work has impacted the entire state and many of our members are navigating challenges of stay-at-home orders, restricted local government areas and client requirements. It was with great regret that the current outbreak has caused us to postpone the No-Dig Down Under until March 2022. We will continue our preparations to ensure this event is ready to go once we are all out of lockdown. It is great to see many of our member leading construction in a responsible way and I congratulate all in following the public health orders to help end the outbreak.